Russel Smith: dude, who cares what you think?

Here's an article by Russel Smith in the Blob and Snail that I read while sitting in the doctor's office yesterday.  Happily, I didn't have to buy the paper, because it generated a very strong wave of "WHAT! EVER!" through my neural network.  To wit:

We old farts did that tiring reporting/interviewing stuff for years before we were allowed to write our opinions on things. I still don't even aspire to this ideal of not being edited; not being edited doesn't seem like a benefit to me. I still have a deep-rooted (and unjustified) instinct telling me that something published has value only if it has been commissioned by someone else.

I am biased in this debate: I don't care so much about the young people's careers, I care about mine, and if they don't play along in the work-for-pay convention, then all of our incomes are undercut. This is why other trades have unions. But creators are not very good at solidarity.

Now, speaking as an Old Fart who writes for free, and purely for the purpose of expressing my opinion before the top of my freakin' head blows off, I have only this to say:

Dear Russel, if it wasn't for the likes of you infesting the Canadian publishing establishment for the last 50+ years, making the whole thing into nothing more than a machine for cranking out Liberal Party of Canada propaganda, maybe your career wouldn't be circling the bowl along with every other print media worker in this country.  You and yours have made Canadian newspapers, magazines, television and radio into a monolithic boulder on the Left side of the political spectrum.  Anybody who wants to do something that hasn't been given official approval by the LPC re-election committee is doing it on the Internet, and there's nobody to blame but YOURSELVES.  I bet almost as many people will read this little rant of mine as read your blather in the Blob, too.

Its probably not too late to change your career to welding.  Better hit the gym, steel is heavy.

The Exploding Phantom

Iggy speaks!

Here's an article in the National Post by none other than our dear ex-Liberal Party leader. Count Iggula.

It shows me two things.  One, the guys who ran this man's election campaign were utter morons.

Evil is a moral problem for everyone, difficult to acknowledge in ourselves, hard to understand in others, and difficult to defeat without committing lesser evils. Liberals - I count myself as one - have a special problem with evil, connected to our particular form of selfregard. Liberals like to believe we are tolerant, but evil, by definition, cannot be tolerated. We believe that politics ought to be deliberative, but we can't deliberate with evil. We think compromise can be honorable, but there are no honorable compromises with evil. We think politics ought to be governed by reason, but evildoers, while they may reason, are not reasonable.

If Iggy had showed up to the election with some of the uncompromising morality of that paragraph, he would have done very well indeed.

Two, thank God the guys who ran this man's election campaign were utter morons because this man can't walk his talk, even inside his own brain.

It is when Wolfe moves on from these general sentiments, which seem both admirable and true, to detailed examples of "fighting politics with politics," that the questions about his approach begin to arise. What would Wolfe do differently? No to the war in Iraq certainly, no to the torture memos. That much is obvious, but on other issues, his skeptical liberal realism is less clear as a guide to action than he supposes. Is Wolfe saying no to intervention in Libya, on the grounds that Qaddafi, while a thug, posed no strategic threat, and his crimes, while vicious, did not rise to a level that had to be stopped?

Its possible I've misunderstood The Iggster's intent here, but that reads to me like the Iraq War was a bad thing while the current Libyan Unpleasantness is a good thing.  Which is preposterous. And also is 180 degrees opposed to his previous views on the matter.

So, I'm content that Iggy is safely contained at Massey College, indoctrinating another generation of Torontonians  in the fine art of Liberalism, sucking and blowing both at the same time.  I'd prefer he be selling apples on a street corner in New York, but you can't always get what you want.

The Phantom

More home invasion fun in Philly.

Hits just keep on coming.

A critically wounded 2-year-old girl was among four people shot Tuesday night in South Philadelphia when a mob of girls charged a house and gunfire erupted in a dispute stemming from a high school fight, police said.

Turns out the high school girls were balked in their home invasion attempt called for backup.

Police spokesman Lt. Raymond Evers said a fight among girls at South Philadelphia High School led to another altercation and, ultimately, the shooting.

Some of the girls from the high school fight showed up at the house of another girl on Bucknell, Evers said. "The girls were pushing into the house," Evers said.

Some neighbors got involved, and one girl called an unidentified man, Evers said. A group of men arrived at the scene and the fighting escalated. Two men pulled out guns and one of them began firing.

So, what does the police chief have to say about this?

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey also responded to scene and denounced a culture of violence among young people.

Uh huh. No help there, then.

My question is, at what point do the people in Philly sandbag the whole front of the house and start stealing road plates to armor the baby's bedroom?

The Phantom

You just can't escape the insanity.

As I've said many times, I never, ever buy the newspaper, I do not have cable TV nor rabbit ears broadcast TV, I do not listen to commercial radio.  And yet still I can't completely escape this sort of thing:

Outsourcing Christmas: Why the new Toronto disgusts me

Michael Babad's article (mbabad@globeandmail.com) is in the Blob and Snail today, and the headline was on my Report On Business news feed. I had to click on that, since Toronto disgusts me also.  Turns out for a different reason.

I know this is an obvious attack point for a bleeding heart, and I also know that governments at every level are scrambling to cut in the post-recession era. But still, getting rid of an agency that pulls together Christmas toys for underprivileged kids?

That's what Toronto's politicians decided yesterday with the Christmas Bureau, one of several measures to save about $28-million, The Globe and Mail's Elizabeth Church and Patrick White report. That's less than what had been proposed, and many things survived Mayor Rob Ford's quest to cut down the gravy.

Toronto is Canada's financial showcase, home to its banks and its premiere stock exchange, drawing business visitors from around the world. With a jobless rate of 8.1 per cent, is this really what we want to show the world?

City of Toronto has a nine billion dollar annual budget. That's $9,000,000,000 samoleans, kids. Rob Ford tried to cut some fat out of it, but every attempted program cut had its little base of support, its own little constituency of outraged simpletons up in arms. 
Examples from the article of things that were not cut are:

Last week, the executive committee removed several contentious cost-cutting proposals, including the closing of library branches and the elimination of 2,000 subsidized daycare spaces funded by the city alone.

An additional $600,000 in cuts were removed Tuesday. Services that were saved include:

– community environment days

– city staff support for the Toronto Youth Cabinet and the Seniors Forum

– the Public Realm's Neighbourhood Improvement Program

As well, a recommendation to sell the Toronto Parking Authority was removed.

Community environment days were too important to Toronto's survival to cut?
But, give them credit, the city council did manage to find sufficient spine to cut $28,000,000, that's TWENTY EIGHT MILLION BUCKS, among which was The Christmas Bureau. The cutting of which "disgusts" Mr. Babad.  He's disgusted the city won't be paying union workers for doing something churches already do faster/better/cheaper. This kind of thing is why we have churches.

And this guy is a business writer?  Are you kidding me?

The comments echo my discontent with Babad's apparent lack of fiscal common sense.

However the best part of this is the Mop & Pail didn't get a penny of income from my wasted ten seconds of reading this dreck.

The Phantom

Another good reason to disable cookies.

Turns out Facebook has been observing your internet browsing even when you are logged out.

Most would assume that Facebook stops monitoring them after they leave its site, but technology bloggers discovered this was not the case.

In fact, data has been regularly sent back to the social network's servers – data that could be worth billions when creating 'targeted' advertising based on the sites users visit.

The website's practices were exposed by Australian technology blogger Nik Cubrilovic and have provoked a furious response across the internet.

I used to think I was paranoid for disabling cookies, popups, Flash, Java and Active X crap.  Turns out no, I wasn't. It's not just that they know your name and where you live, they know every damn website you've ever visited.
Seems to me there's a real market out there for software to secure your browser against people like Facebook and Google.
Imagine what the -government- must be doing.

The Unfortunately Not Paranoid Enough Phantom

Gun control working as intended.

Gun control operating in the Real World.

ABOUT 11 P.M. on Sept. 9, dozens of youths with bats and pipes descended on a tidy residential area of Port Richmond looking for white teens who allegedly had attacked an African-American kid at Stokely Playground a couple of hours earlier.

Two fearful white teens [yeah, try little kids] spotted Mark LaVelle on Indiana Avenue near Belgrade Street and asked for help. Suddenly, the mob appeared. LaVelle, who said that he didn't know the two kids, who looked to be 13 or 14, ran with them into his nearby house.

Then it got ugly.

They were standing on his steps. One shouted, " 'Something's going to happen now!' " LaVelle recalled in an interview Friday at his house. LaVelle got nervous and went back inside, locking his door with a deadbolt.

But the attackers pounded on his front windows and kicked his wooden door so hard, it flew open and some of them entered his house.

"The first guy hits me with a pipe. The second guy knocks me in the face. All I'm hearing is my wife and kids screaming," said LaVelle, who feared that the next time they saw him, he would be in a casket.

He said that he was able to push the attackers out the door, but then a third man - who had a gun - tried to extend his arm. LaVelle grabbed onto the gunman's lower arm and shoulder so he couldn't raise the weapon. Then, police sirens screamed in the neighborhood, and the mob turned and ran.

I don't know what to say about this.  The same type of thing happened to me at age 19, and it scarred me for life even though I WON the engagement and left the other asshole bleeding on the floor.  First thing I did was go take up martial arts and become a fearsome looking son of a bitch.  Works great at scaring punks, sucks in a job interview, the nightmares don't go away.

This is a failure of not just social policy, this is a failure of basic civilization.  Roving bands of armed teenaged punks confident enough to attack a grown man in his own home, over nothing?  That's serious shit my friends.

When we hear about mobs of Muslims hauling a Hindu family out of their house in New Delhi and beating them to death in the street, we say "tsk" and wonder how a nation could allow such things. 

WELL NOW WE KNOW, DON'T WE.

The Completely and Utterly Disgusted Phantom

A hopeful sign: Hippie Punching back in vogue.

This picture is dedicated to Kathy, who'd have punched the hippie bitch herself had she been there.


Wall Street, 80 arrested, some pepper sprayed.

Police said 80 protesters were arrested or ticketed at multiple locations for disorderly conduct, blocking traffic and failure to obey a lawful order but the number could rise.

Officials said protesters did not have a permit for the march and one demonstrator was charged with assaulting a police officer, causing a shoulder injury. The NYPD was investigating the use of pepper spray.

That's the total content of the article that deals with what actually happened. The rest of it is a tale of woe, poor little innocent protesters unjustly attacked by the Blue Meanies.

Hippie punching is never a bad idea, you ask me. Frigging little weenies want to play flash mob, push people around and screw up traffic, they should feel some pain.

A fine won't make much of an impression, but pepper spray in the eye is a memory that will last a lifetime. The stupid chick in the picture above won't be quite so quick to lip off to the cops next time, no doubt about it.

The Phantom Meanie

Update: Welcome Five Feet of Fury fans. Kathy Shaidle should have her own program on Sun TV. Or at least Ezra should shut up and let her talk when she's a guest. ~:D

Big Brother wants your medical records.

The latest shoe to drop from the Obamacare nightmare: Health and Human Services will have access to your medical records. Yes, for real.

In a proposed rule from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government is demanding insurance companies submit detailed health care information about their patients.

Yes friends, the federal government WILL have complete access to every shot you've had (or skipped) since you were born, your meds, your vision tests, any psych info you may have confided to your doctor, hospital visits, medical tests like colonoscopies, blood tests or CAT scans, the WORKS. Pictures too.

Just imagine what a well-meaning bureaucrat could do with that. Ever had a depressive episode? No guns for you! Ever had a heart murmur? You get the Special Diet and a fine if you're seen at McDonalds! Over weight? EXERCISE PROGRAM! In front of the TV that watches you! We even have that already, its called a web cam. Funny how 1984 keeps cropping up all the time.
And just imagine the sheer cost of doing it. The database alone will probably cost more than a squadron of B2 bombers, government computer systems always do. Then there's the staff, the policy wonks, the oversight committees, the scamming...

Two words my friends. Tea. Party.

The "I can seeeee you!" Phantom

Stingray is watching you.

Very informative article about how the cops track cell phones that are not even in use.

Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even when it's not being used to make a call. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers the devices to be so critical that it has a policy of deleting the data gathered in their use, mainly to keep suspects in the dark about their capabilities, an FBI official told The Wall Street Journal in response to inquiries.

A stingray's role in nabbing the alleged "Hacker"—Daniel David Rigmaiden—is shaping up as a possible test of the legal standards for using these devices in investigations. The FBI says it obtains appropriate court approval to use the device.

Cops are behind the times with their Stingray.  Check it: right here on the Phantom Soapbox, the semi-autonomous flying WiFi and phone sniffer. Geeks built it for a giggle.  Its better than FBI kit.

Sometimes it is a burden to be so right, about so many things.  ~:D

The Phantom

Toldja!

Barry's going to have to fight for his nomination.  Told ya, told ya, told ya.  The giggle?  They think he's not LIBERAL enough!  It is to die laughing!

President Obama's smooth path to the Democratic nomination may have gotten rockier Monday, after a group of liberal leaders, including former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, announced plans to challenge the incumbent in primaries next year.

The group said the goal is to offer up a handful of candidates from various fields and areas where the president either has failed to stake out a "progressive" position or where he has "drifted toward the corporatist right."

"Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party's presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored," Mr. Nader said in a news release. "The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters."

I don't think these morons have a hope, but they DO have some MSM noise going now.  Enough noise for the Clintons to step into.

Barry = dead duck walking.  Stick a fork in him, he's done like dinner.

Go Tea Party!

The Phantom

This is the trial balloon for Hillary.

Here we go.  Remember I said Barry wasn't going to make the Dem nomination next year?  Here's the setup.

The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering a form of buyer's remorse, saying the U.S. would be better off now if she had become president in 2008 instead of Barack Obama.

The finding in the latest Bloomberg National Poll shows a higher level of wishful thinking about a Hillary Clinton presidency than when a similar question was asked in July 2010. Then, a quarter of Americans held such a view.

"Looking back, I wonder if she would have been a stronger leader, knowing the games and the politics and all that goes on," said Susan Dunlop, 50, a homemaker in New Port Richey, Florida. "I don't think she would have bent as much."

I've been noticing a lot of anti-Obama chatter on the MSM lately.  You don't normally see that kind of lipping off to a DemocRat prezzy, they save it for the Republicans.  So the shine has worn off, and now some of the other Great Powers in the 'Rat Party are going to buck the Chicago Machine and try to get their own horse to run.

IMHO, not being an expert or anything, we are going to start seeing a lot of these manufactured polls in favor of Hillary.  Possibly some more candiates will pop up as the deadline for the Dem nominations approaches.  Could be this is the trial ballon that launches the avalanche. Or not. 

But we shall see.

The Phantom

P.S. Even Hillary the grifter would be less of a disaster than Barry.  He's not even a thief, he's a saboteur.  Our one bit of good fortune is that he's an inept saboteur.

Obama going full-on Brownshirt.

Can't really think of another way to say it.  Totalitarian political fink line set up (so it says) by Barry's campaign.

Introducing AttackWatch.com

The smears didn't end with the 2008 election. President Obama's opponents are still using false allegations against the President and his record in an attempt to derail the momentum of this movement.

That's why we're launching Attack Watch—to provide a hub for the facts and fight back with the truth.

But we can't do it alone. We need your help to render these attacks ineffective and expose them as the worst kind of politics. There are lots of ways to get involved: join our Attack Wire to stay up to date on the latest from our opponents, help spread the President's message by signing up to volunteer, or donate to support this site and the campaign as a whole.

Check this news feed for updates in the coming weeks, and be sure to follow @AttackWatch on Twitter for breaking news as it happens.

Paid for by Obama for America

This is so 1932 I can hardly stand it.  AttackWatch, forsooth.  Sharpen up those entrenching tools friends. Reading this right after the bit on the Amish, it makes my brain hurt.

The Phantom

Amish terrorism... its the real deal!

Yes friends, those insane Christian terrorists are out there.  The brave constabulary of Graves County Kentucky has eight of these heinous criminals behind bars tonight!

Eight members of a traditional Amish sect were behind bars on Tuesday after refusing to pay fines for failure to display orange-red safety triangles on their horse-drawn buggies.

Graves District Judge Deborah Hawkins ordered the men jailed Monday in Mayfield, about 200 miles from Louisville in western Kentucky. The defendants contend that paying the fines would amount to complying with a law that violates their religious restrictions against wearing or displaying bright colors or relying upon man-made symbols for their safety.

Imagine the chaos that would result if just anyone could decide not to post the required safety signage on their vehicle! Judge Graves has her work cut out for her though, according to the article she has 44 more of these miscreants to deal with on Monday. 

Jail the lot of them, I say!  Comply! Submit! Bend your knee to the power of the almighty State!

All hail Obama!

Comrade Phantom, Acorn North.

Apropos of 9/11 memorials...

... here's why there aren't any yet. Paul Krugman thinks that:

Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

So naturally any decent monument to the dead would be a rallying point for Republicans, and the Krugmans of the world can't have that. Therefore, there are no monuments, ten years later.

But there is a Tea Party. So perhaps by 2021 there will finally be a decent monument to the dead.

And Paul Krugman will be reduced to posting anonymously on some obscure blog while The Phantom will post under my real name. Could happen.

Real 9/11 memorial.

This is what I'd have done, had it been up to me. Athena.


Fifty stories tall. Throwing her spear at Mecca. The tip of the spear is a full-sized F-15 Eagle. Only my version has her throwing a lot harder and looking a lot more dangerous. She'd have 3,000 helpers holding her re-loads. And the construction would be finished.

'Nuff said.

Obama gets results!

ObamaNation: Noo Yawk City...

In one of the bloodiest weekends in recent city history, 31 people were brutally shot in roughly 48 hours this weekend -- including three kids at a house party-turned-shooting gallery in The Bronx.

25 people had been shot as of Sunday night, but by early Monday morning, six more people were shot in three separate incidents in Brooklyn.

How bad is that?

The one-day crime wave mirrored the city's drug-fueled epidemic of violence in the 1980s and '90s, police sources said.

"Last night was unbelievable," one source said. "I can't remember a couple of hours like these since the days of crack."

That's pretty frickin' bad. What was Bloomberg's reaction?

Calling the chilling violence "just unconscionable," Mayor Bloomberg demanded that the feds step up their efforts to get illegal weapons off the streets.

"We just cannot continue to have these guns in the hands of kids who don't understand the value of human life," he said.

So no help there then, eh?

The Phantom

UPDATE: Final number for the weekend, 67 shot, ten dead.

Updated statistics obtained by NBC New York on Tuesday show that at least 67 people were shot between 12 a.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Monday. That includes nine on Friday, 10 on Saturday, 33 on Sunday and 15 on Monday.

Preliminary numbers indicate as many as 10 were killed.

New Jack City baby. Way to go Mayor Bloomberg, that gun control riff is really working.

Lefty stops pretending.

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war," Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said to a heavily union crowd.

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong," Hoffa added.

Bring it, Jimmy baby.

The Phantom

Today's kewlness: single molecule electric motor.

Yep. Electric motor made of one (1) molecule, driven and imaged by scanning tunneling microscope. The kewlness is extreme.

The butyl methyl sulphide molecule was placed on a clean copper surface, where its single sulphur atom acted as a pivot.

The tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope - a tiny pyramid with a point just an atom or two across - was used to funnel electrical charge into the motor, as well as to take images of the molecule as it spun.

It spins in both directions, at a rate as high as 120 revolutions per second.

But averaged over time, there is a net rotation in one direction.

By modifying the molecule slightly, it could be used to generate microwave radiation or to couple into what are known as nano-electromechanical systems, Dr Sykes said.

120 revs per second is 7200 rpm for gearheads. That's a respectable bit of spin. Motor for a mechanical creation the size of a bacteria? Hell yeah! Robots the size of bacteria. Sprinkle them on a junk heap and they'll print me a Ferrari.

The Phantom

Where money goes to die: government.

Our subject today is government waste as it applies to technology.  The specifics, Germany has lifted its ban on DOOM after 17 years.

As a result of the decision, Doom (released in 1993) and Doom 2 (1994) can now be freely distributed. The U.S. version of Doom 2 - Hell on Earth was excluded from the decisions as it includes two levels of Wolfenstein 3D, which includes "unconstitutional" symbols such as the swastika used by the Nazis. Wolfenstein 3D is listed as a "confiscated" video game in Germany.

According to the commission, the graphics and animations in Doom and Doom 2 are considered antiquated and not realistic. As the game has been generally considered as one of the most significant game titles in video game history and the U.S. Library of Congress decided to accept that game in its catalog of historically important media, the German commission argued that the game is historically significant.

Now, even though DOOM was one of my favorite things back in the day, (as our illustrious Arms Chest veterans will attest, hours and HOURS spent decimating aliens on the
Arms Chest Official Battle Simulator computer!) this is not really about that.

This is about the astounding amount of money involved in even having a commission that can decide to ban a video game in the first place.  Seventeen years ago some bunch of highly paid guys sat around and decided to BAN the most popular computer game in world history, and today some other bunch of guys decided the first bunch were wrong, also for very handsome pay.  I'm sure John Carmack is stoked about it.

Nobody involved seems to be asking the question, should government be doing that?  Because I think its friggin' insanity.  We'd all be better off if that whole commission and all its myriad support staff were out sweeping up dog poo in Berlin, even at full pay.  At least they'd be getting -productive- work done, instead of throwing rocks in everyone's path and f-ing up the world economy.

Just think of the numberless seat-warmers, chair polishers and Big Kahuna desk pilots we have in Ottawa and the provincial capitals doing jobs just like this.  Just think of the size of tax cut it would take to see them all out on the street looking for productive work.  Just phone up your MP and kick his butt for him.

TAX CUT NOW!

The Phantom

P.S. DOOM 4!!!! 

Big Brother says: "Its for your own good!"

Not a word of a lie, FDA proposes rubber tit registry.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- A federal advisory panel has recommended the creation of a nationwide database to follow women who have had silicone-gel breast implants for at least a decade after they had the surgery.

What does this mean?

While the idea of a breast implant registry is just in its beginning stages, it could potentially link some reimbursement to registration or else incentivize doctors in some other way to get their patients enrolled and to keep them in the study so longitudinal data could be obtained.

Patients may need an incentive too, to encourage them to go to follow-up doctor's appointments, fill out questionnaires, and participate in focus groups.

"You can have the most well-meaning company, but if patient doesn't want to participate, the study won't work," Maisel said.

It means if people won't volunteer for the study, you MAKE them do it.  Privacy schmivacy!

Because hey, more data is good, so lots more will be REALLY good, and everybody should get out there and do good.   And if you don't we will find a way to punish you.

The Phantom

The One blinks. Again!

Barry likes to play chicken, but he has no staying power. 

President Barack Obama, citing the struggling economy, asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to withdraw an air-quality rule that Republicans and business groups said would cost millions of jobs.

The surprise move—coming on the same day as a dismal unemployment report—reflected the energy industry's importance as a rare bright spot in adding U.S. jobs. The tighter standards for smog-forming ozone could have forced states and cities to limit some oil-and-gas projects.

In making the move, the White House clearly judged that it had more to lose from industry and Republican criticism than it had to gain from environmental groups who support the rule.

Somebody in the White House counted up all the fruitbat Lefties who show up for Sierra Club events and then counted the Tea Party turnout.  Looks to me Watermelons came up short, so under the bus they go.
Coming on the heels of the big Alberta to Texas pipeline deal, the Storm That Never Was and the Republicans making him move his speech from Wednesday to Thursday,  Barry is looking like a sap.  Poor Barry.

The Phantom